Thursday, June 23, 2016

How Votes Were Nullified in
California? By Julia Stein June 17, 2016

By June 10, 2016, three days after the
election, six million voters had been counted in California, but 2.5 million
hadn’t been counted. Though pre-vote surveys showed Sanders only very narrowly
behind Clinton right before voting day, the June 7 election count had Sanders 43%
and Clinton 56% (Sanders received
483,000 less votes than Clinton). By law
counties in California don’t have to finish their vote counting until July 8,
2016. Vote counting went slowly through June 16 when 1.9 million ballots still haven’t
been counted (Truthdig). California votes were nullified.

According to the San Jose Mercury News in the 2012
primary election 31% of registered voters voted in California (2/3 of the
states have more people voting), so the Democratic legislature in January 2016
changed the voting registration procedure making it easier and 650,000 people registered spring 2016, the largest increase
in people 18-29.The new law also allows
people to be automatically registered when they visit the Department of Motor
Vehicles, potentially adding up to 6.6 million new voters:the legislature reasoned easier
registration, problem solved. Though the state’s voting procedures and different
ballots are quite complicated, a few Sanders’ supporters were the only people who
tried to do any education on how to vote for new voters before election day.

June 6, 2016, the day before five states including California voted, the
Associated Press and NBC “News” both
announced that Hillary Clinton had won the nomination based on a poll of super
delegates, who don’t vote officially until July 25--a 100% false report. Mindy
Romero, director of the UC Berkeley California Civil Engagement Project
believes the AP report lowered turnout as many voters stayed home on Election
Day—some Sanders voters stayed home.

A just released Harvard study by Professor T. Patterson and the Shorenstein
Center on Media, Public Policy, and Politics, after studying eight cable news
networks and newspapers, said, “The perception of the Clinton vs. Sanders race
created by the media’s earliest coverage generated an aura of inevitability for
Hillary Clinton and encouraged a dismissive attitude toward Sanders despite his
early mega-rallies on the West Coast and huge advantage with small-dollar
donations.” The Harvard study vindicated Bernie supporters that the mass media
gave more coverage to Clinton “for the purpose of driving ad revenue and clicks
rather than for the purpose of informing the public.”

Democracy
Now on June 9, 2016, had Sanders
consultant Larry Cohen say Sanders delegates at the Democratic Convention will
criticize the problems in voting and will try to abolish the super delegate
system. Super delegates are 15 % of the delegates whom voters don’t elect. The
party elite, choosing super delegates from either other party elites or paid lobbyists
who fund campaigns, instituted the super delegate system to end the voter
insurgencies of the late 1960s and 1970s. Cohen argues corporations/Wall Street
control the Democratic Party through the use of super delegates and their
money, describing how in the state of Washington Sanders won with 72% of the
vote but didn’t get one super delegate.

In Los Angeles voters recounted
anecdotes of chaotic voting. The Los Angeles Times reported June 14,
2016, that LA County Supervisors heard dozens of complaints from voters and poll
workers about “broken voting machines, names missing from voter rosters, and
polling stations that ran out of ballots.” Marcia Martin, polling station inspector, said
many voters were “recorded as vote-by-mail or never received their ballots,
people complained their names didn’t appear on the rolls, and voters were
registered with a party they hadn’t signed up for.” Many of those complaining were first-time
voters. Sanders voters complained they weren’t given ballots that allowed them
to vote in the Democratic primary. Many poll workers were poorly trained.

L.A. County Register –Recorder Dean Logan
acknowledged problems caused by “the surge in new voters and existing voters
switching party preference …,” and he blamed other problems on a too-complex
voting system which was “challenging for voters, cumbersome for poll workers,
and difficult to administer.”Logan
added that L.A. country is overhauling its voting machine system, “eventually
replac[ing] ink-based balloting with touch-screen machines.”If Los Angeles or any other county in the
state were serious about vote counting, they’d first train poll workers better
and then just hire a great number of short-term workers to count quickly before,
on, and just after election day.

Further, California voters are 48%
Democrats, 27% Republicans, and 23% independents or 4.6 million independents,
many of which are Sander’s voters and/ or young first-time voters who lean to
Sanders. Democratic leaders know that about 48% reliably vote Democratic each election.
Retiring U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, a pillar of the state’s Democratic elite,
had a bad feud with Sanders’ supporters stemming from her being booed by them
at the Nevada Democratic Party Convention. The Democratic elite might have good
reasons not to invest in new, simplified voting procedures if they fear they will
be rejected by the millions of new voters, but if the Democratic elite restore the state’s New Deal heritage of free public
tuition at UC and Cal State Universities (I went to UC Berkeley for $180/year in
the 1960s), $15/hour minimum wage, etc, young voters will vote Democratic.

Similar voting problems to Los
Angeles’ were reported across the state (San Diego voters held a protests against
the same flaws as L.A. voters had complained), but no systematic study has been
made and no lawsuit has been filed. If the state’s voting system breaks down
with 650,000 new voters, how could it handle 6 million new voters? Though it’s
commendable to make voter registration easier, the state needs to simplify its
cumbersome voting procedures, get updated machines that also have paper ballots,
get enough trained poll workers for the next election, and educate new voters
before election day. Senator Senders on CBS news has endorsed open primaries, same
day registration, and enough trained staff to get the votes counted quickly.

Californians who want to see votes quickly
counted so they count should first try for a serious dialogue with the legislature
and the counties that California’s voting procedures be simplified and able to
handle 6.6 new million voters without breakdown. Now 2.5 million votes have
been nullified by inept voting procedures, mass media propaganda, and the super
delegate system.If the state doesn’t
improve how it votes, more millions of votes could be nullified in the next
election.

About Me

I'm a poet, novelist, and literary critic now living in Los Angeles. I've published five books of poetry: Under the Ladder to Heaven, Desert Soldiers, Shulamith, and Walker Woman, and What Were They Like? I've also edited two books of poetry: "Walking through a River of Fire: 100 Years of Triangle Factory Fire Poetry" and "Every Day is an Act of Resistance: Selected Poems of Carol Tarlen" edited with David Joseph. I am co-author of the book "Shooting Women: Behind the Camera, Around the World" as well as numerous essays of literary criticism. My education is all in California: UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and California State University at Los Angeles. I've been an oral historian of Los Angeles, grunt at a publishing house, TV producer, radio producer, free-lance writer, and college professor in both psychology and English